The Yukon may be most famous for gold, but water is among its other
treasures. For mining companies that are developing operations in some
of the territory's more isolated corners, that includes drinking
water for the dozens of people who may be working at any given site.

While there is often water to be found in such places, it can be
brackish and non-potable. At the same time, transporting large amounts
of clean water to these locations is an expensive business and one that
also adds to the environmental footprint of any given project.

Researchers at the Yukon Research Centre (YRC) at Yukon College in
Whitehorse have been testing technology that should help mining crews
produce their own clean water from a local supply. This method, known as
capacitive deionization, employs an electric potential between porous
carbon electrodes to draw salt ions out of water and concentrate them in
a separate saline pool. "At the end we have a volume of less
brackish water and a smaller volume of very salty water," says
Amelie Janin, who holds YRC's Industrial Research Chair in Mining
Life Cycle.

Janin and research technician Michel Duteau have been supervising
students in the testing of this method with Northern Cross, an oil and
gas exploration firm that maintains a camp with some 70 people working
more than 800 kilometres north of Whitehorse. The camp's well
offers only brackish water and the company is trucking in potable water
every few days from a source 50 kilometres away. If the capacitive
deionization system operates as planned, such camps would be able to run
the necessary equipment with solar power and make their well water
potable.

The project is one of several that Janin has undertaken since
taking on the NSERC-sponsored chair at the beginning of 2013. The mining
firm Victoria Gold promoted the creation of this position, which is also
supported by three other companies: Alexco Resources, Capstone Mining
Corporation and Yukon Zinc. "I work a lot in bioremdiation,"
Janin says, noting that her career as a chemist began in this field,
although she had not previously worked with the mining industry. She
also points to the fact that the Yukon contains one of the world's
largest iron ore deposits, along with significant undeveloped lead-zinc
deposits. In anticipation of the industrial activity these resources
will generate, the chair's mandate includes the development of new
methods for mine wastewater treatment as well as cleaning up other water
supplies that have been affected by mining.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Janin is also working with Victoria Gold on the use of bacteria to
remove contaminants from water tainted by mine tailings. Since mining
represents about 10 percent of the territorial economy, she notes that
these resource enterprises are well motivated to invest in such
innovations, which can be instrumental in enabling them to meet strict
environmental regulations and assuage local concerns around development.
"It's a pristine environment and we have First Nations and
Yukoners who care about the land a lot," Janin says.

Caption: Sabrina Clarke, a student at the Yukon Research Centre,
examines ways of cleaning up water at a mine site operated by Victoria
Gold.

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